Ski Africa for Charity

Vancouver, Canada (s4i) April 12, 2010 â€“ Contrary to popular belief, skiing in Africa is not impossible. Vancouver resident Justin Long will be skiing the perilous Mt. Stanley, Africaâ€™s third largest peak, in an expedition named Snow4Innocents to raise awareness of Uganda’s serious child mortality rate and raise funds for the only children’s hospital in the region.

Justin is a 21-year-old skier and student who moved to Vancouver from Lake Tahoe to study Business and Environmental Health at Simon Fraser University. When he was planning his ski descent in Africa, he learned that Holy Innocents Childrenâ€™s Hospital needed help raising funds for its operation.

â€œAfrican nations already suffer from epidemics like tuberculosis and AIDS. I learned that Holy Innocents is not just fighting those diseases but is also dealing with a new Malaria outbreak,â€ Justin said. â€œWeâ€™re just ignorant about the effects of unhealthy children and the drag of disease on our future, so letâ€™s ski in the most unexpected place to show everyone why it matters!â€

Justin will be making the entire expedition interactive for followers and donors. Justin will perform silly acts during the expedition voted in by participants. He might yodel on top of Mt. Stanley, he could wear pink underwear. The Snow4Innocents website has an online voting system for people to create ideas and vote which ones he will do. (You can submit your idea at the (s4i) website.)

The ski descent will take place this June over a three-week time window. The ski descent is expected to be approximately 2,500 feet vertical, half of Whistler Mountainâ€™s height. Justin will be reaching a summit of almost 4,800 metres (16,000 feet). Those interested will be able to follow Justinâ€™s expedition through updates on the web and watch Justin act out ideas from the website.

When the climb is finished, Justin will spend the remainder of the summer in Uganda volunteering his time to revamp marketing communications for Holy Innocents. Justin wants to help the hospital develop its own communications staff to keep the West up to date on its efforts.